He joins a long list of Italian leaders to call for changes to the EU's Dublin Treaty, which mandates that asylum seekers be processed in the country of their arrival. Italy is often that first port for those coming across the Mediterranean Sea, hoping to reach Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

During a visit to a migrant reception centre in the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo, his second day on the job, the leader of the anti-immigration far-Right League party said shipwrecks off Tunisia and Turkey that left dozens dead on Sunday could have been prevented.

At least 46 people died after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast, the country's Defence Ministry said. Their bodies were recovered from the water near the island of Kerkennah. Earlier in the day, nine migrants, including six children, drowned off Turkey.

"Every life is sacred - to save lives you have to stop the departures of these death boats, which is a lucrative business for some and a disgrace for the rest of the world," said Salvini. The attempt to shape the migration issue around saving lives is a shift in rhetoric for the firebrand, who rose to power on an anti-immigration promise to boot out more than 500,000 people with a "kick in the ass".

On Saturday he told a rally in the north: "The good times for illegals is over - get ready to pack your bags."

Merkel has invited Salvini to Berlin for "open and constructive" talks.

"I will openly approach and work with the new Italian government rather than speculating on its intentions," she told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper. "Germany has an elementary interest in an effective Europe."

She restated her belief that a single asylum system is the answer to Europe's migration concerns.

Salvini was quick to capitalise on Germany's support, telling reporters "even Merkel says Italy has been left too long on its own".

Germany took in more than 1 million refugees and migrants in 2015 and 2016.

AP